My smartphone MAC address has changed

[Patricia55]

I changed from EE PAYG to an EE monthly package in mid-August, which went fine. Whilst I was discussing this with the agent, she persuaded me to change my Landline/Broadband provider from ten years with TalkTalk (TT) to now using EE, promising I would get just as good equipment and service with EE as I have done with TT. That all took place on 31/08/23 and, within the first two days, I realised I'd made a very big mistake.

Apart from the mounting grievances I've been dealing with since that date (including no longer being able to access My EE on my smartphone, but could still access it via my PC), I discovered that my smartphone MAC address had completely changed from the one I had whilst using the TT router, yet all my other device MAC addresses remained the same.

After being given a link by a helper in the EE forum for "MAC Address Lookup", I checked it out earlier today with both the TT and EE MAC addresses........very interesting. The TT one showed the origin, etc, of my smartphone, whereas the EE one showed this >>>

Info

No assignment is found for this MAC: (address numbers).

MAC Address more info

Locally administered addresses (LAA): the address is assigned to a device by a network administrator, overriding the burned-in address.

Note
It's also be a randomized MAC. Media Access Control (MAC) address randomization is a privacy technique whereby mobile devices rotate through random hardware addresses in order to prevent observers from singling out their traffic or physical location from other nearby devices.

Type of transmission: Unicast <<<

Can anyone here explain this for me, please, preferably without any heavy technical jargon because it's double Dutch to me? I didn't know that a MAC address could be changed, nor do I understand why it should be, or through which source. Did EE or OR implement this? If so, how and why?

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I would greatly appreciate any comeback to my query, no matter what ideas or knowledge anyone has.

[XRaySpeX]

It's up to you! As @Mustrum would say "if it ain't broke don't fix it!" but at least you now know the reason behind it.

Thanks! You're welcome 🙂 ! Glad I could be of assistance & trust it is now sorted.

[Patricia55]

Hi, Mustrum. I know, those ghost fairies are real little imps.

Well, it's all a learning process for me, but I also happen to have a very enquiring mind. I like to have an understanding of whatever gadgets I may be using, especially when it's something like the invisible workings behind the internet, which I've always been very wary of. Basically, I need to know that I have as much safety and security as possible.

My only specific concern about the service (I presume you mean from EE) is that it had a really bad start with some of the set-ups not being implemented when they should have been. However, those have been addressed and fixed, but I'm still not sure about this bloomin' router, as my PC has definitely slowed down, too. Right now, I'm in no rush to do anything, as long as it keeps working.

It's been a long and busy day here, so I'm going to sign out after I've checked whatever messages have just come in. I've marked XRay's post as a solution, so I hope I've done the right thing there, as I'm not sure whether it's my place to click on that magic button.

No doubt, we'll meet again. Don't know where, and don't know when. Life is full of surprises, isn't it?
Take care for now, and thanks again. Pat

[Patricia55]

Goodnight, and thanks again.
PS - I clicked on the solution box in your post, so I hope I didn't do the wrong thing there.

[XRaySpeX]

It's primarily the OP's right to mark Solutions when they fit the bill.